Functional molecules are of great interest for future applications in "molecular nanotechnology". A detailed understanding of the molecular function when being adsorbed on a surface or in contact with other molecules is required. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) represents a highly suitable instrument for the investigation of such molecules, because it can not only image molecules with submolecular resolution but is also capable to manipulate single molecules by chemical/electrostatic forces or electronic processes. In this talk, various examples of manipulations of single molecules by low temperature STM will be given. The controlled assembly of functional molecules by "on-surface-synthesis" will be presented, whereas the shape of the molecular nanostructures can be precisely tuned by the initial building blocks. By pulling a polymer from a metallic surface, the conductance can be measured for a single molecular wire as a continuous function of the electrode-electrode distance. Finally, the adsorption and growth of such organic nanostructures on inorganic crystallites, thus creating a hybrid system, will be discussed.

Brief Bio:

Leonhard Grill studied physics at the University of Graz where he finished with a diploma thesis in experimental surface science. In 1997 he went to the Laboratorio TASC in Trieste (Italy) to work on thin metallic films on semiconductor surfaces and finished his phD thesis in 2001. Afterwards, he went to the Freie Universitaet Berlin, where he started to study the manipulation of single molecules on metal surfaces and continued his work after the retirement of Prof. Rieder in 2006 in an independent research group. In 2009, he finished his Habilitation and became group leader at the Department of Physical Chemistry of the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin.